1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a storage medium, and a printing system for transmitting print data to a printer and allowing the print data to be printed by the printer.
2. Related Background Art
Among the conventional printing systems, there is a printing system for processing a character train object by a method different from that of a graphics object and transferring the processed object to a printer.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a printing system (hereinafter, simply referred to as a system) according to the conventional method.
 less than Description of Outline of System greater than 
As shown in FIG. 14, a host computer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a host) 3000 and a printer 1500 are connected through some communication interface 21 such as a centronics or the like. A character train object 10001 is transferred as character train information 10003 to the printer 1500. A graphics object 10002 is transferred as image bit map data serving as image information 10004 to the printer 1500.
 less than Transferring Method which is Changed in Accordance with the Kind of Drawing Object greater than 
In the above system, a case where only the character train object 10001 is printed as a drawing object of one page of a recording paper will now be considered.
In case of the general printing of only characters, an amount of data in which the character train objects of one page were developed in an image bit map is larger than a data amount of character train code information. Therefore, a transfer data amount can be more suppressed by the method of transferring the character train objects as character train code information to the printer rather than the method of developing all of the drawing objects to bit map image data and transferring the bit map image data from the host to the printer. Therefore, the transferring method is changed in accordance with the kind of drawing object, thereby realizing a high efficiency of the data transfer.
 less than Description of Processes Time from Data Input to Data Output greater than 
According to the above system, one of subsystems which operate by the host 3000, for example, a document processing subsystem inputs the character train object 10001 as a drawing object or the graphics object 10002 to a driver 101 which operates in the host 3000, so that the processes are started.
The driver 101 to which the drawing object has been inputted executes the following processes in accordance with the kind of input drawing object until the input of the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper is finished.
(1) When the character train object 10001 is inputted, the driver 101 converts the character train object into character train code information by using a character train converter 1001 and transfers the converted information as character train information 10003 to the printer 1500.
(2) When the graphics object 10002 is inputted, the input object is once developed as a bit map image 100001 into a memory 1003 serving as a virtual output medium by using a drawer 1002. In this instance, no character information is included in the bit map image 100001. When the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are inputted, the bit map image 100001 drawn so far is transferred as image information 10004 to the printer 1500.
When all of the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are processed by the driver, the character train information 10003 corresponding to the character train objects 10001 of one page of the recording paper and/or the image information 10004 in which the graphics objects 10002 of one page of the recording paper were developed has been inputted in the printer 1500.
The printer 1500 executes the following processes.
(1) A glyph generator 1004 develops the input character train information 10003 into bit map information 10005 (Glyph) of a character train by using font information 10006 stored in a built-in font memory (FONT) 1006.
(2) A glyph synthesizer 1005 overwrites the developed glyph information 10005 onto the bit map image as image information 10004 of one page of the recording paper.
A bit map image 100002 which is obtained as a result of the above processes becomes a print result.
 less than Specification that is Common to the Conventional Art greater than 
In the system mentioned in the above example, it is assumed that a possibility in which the other drawing objects are overlapped on the character train object is low so long as a general printed matter is printed. A drawing order of the character train is ignored. For example, a similar specification is also used in a case of annexed UniDriver as a general driver of MS-Windows as a typical operating system which is installed in the host. By using such a specification, the following advantages can be obtained.
(1) While the driver develops the graphics object into the bit map image, by developing the character train object into the glyph information in the printer driver, the printing time can be reduced.
(2) In the case where the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are constructed by only the character train objects, there is no need to transfer the bit map image, so that a transfer data amount between the host and the printer is reduced.
However, in the system, information of the drawing order in the character train objects is consequently lost.
FIG. 2A shows an example of an image obtained by overlaying a character train 202 (xe2x80x9cABCDxe2x80x9d) onto a rectangle fill 201, namely, an image obtained by drawing the character train 202 after the rectangle fill 201. FIG. 2B shows an example of an image obtained by overlaying a character train 204 under a rectangle fill 203, namely, an image obtained by drawing the character train 204 before the rectangle fill 203. As mentioned above, even in the image in which the same object is arranged at the same position in the picture plane, the output results are different depending on a difference of the drawing order. From this reason, in case of the conventional printing system for performing processes while ignoring the drawing order, there exists a case where the character train objects in the printer are drawn in accordance with the drawing order different from the order which the user inherently wants to draw, so that the inherent print result and the print result actually obtained remarkably differ.
As a simplest method to solve the above problem, there is considered a method of drawing all of the drawing objects into a bit map image on the driver 101 side in accordance with the drawing order without distinguishing the character train objects from the other drawing objects. However, if the printing is performed by this method, even when the drawing objects of one page constructed by only the character train objects are outputted, it is necessary to transfer all of the objects to the printer by the bit map image and the formation of all of the bit map images has to be performed by the host apparatus. In other words, all of the advantages obtained in the apparatus of FIG. 14 are lost.
The invention is made in consideration of the above conventional techniques and it is an object of the invention to make it possible to print by a printer on the basis of a designated drawing result. Another object of the invention is that an overlap of character train objects and drawing objects is discriminated from attribute information and space information, and with respect to the character train objects which do not need to consider an overlap, by transmitting them as character train information to a printer, an amount of data to be transmitted is reduced, and by developing an image in parallel with the printer, a processing efficiency is improved, and an overlap extent of the drawing objects is preserved and the drawing objects are outputted from the printer as an inherent image to be formed.
Still another object of the invention is to prevent a situation such that since a time limitation and a limitation of the number of times are provided for the overlap space discrimination, long time is consumed for the purpose of discrimination.
According to the invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising:
discriminating means for discriminating whether objects are drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of a drawing order or not; and
transfer means for, when it is determined by the discriminating means that the objects are the drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of the drawing order, forming image data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed image data as print data to a printer and for, when it is decided by the discriminating means that the objects are the drawing objects in which there is no need to draw in consideration of the drawing order, forming code data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed code data as print data to the printer.
According to the invention, there is also provided an information processing method comprising:
a discriminating step of discriminating whether objects are drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of a drawing order or not; and
a transfer step of, when it is determined by the discriminating step that the objects are the drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of the drawing order, forming image data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed image data as print data to a printer and, when it is decided by the discriminating step that the objects are the drawing objects in which there is no need to draw in consideration of the drawing order, forming code data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed code data as print data to the printer.
According to the invention, there is provided a storage medium for storing programs comprising:
a discriminating step of discriminating whether objects are drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of a drawing order or not; and
a transfer step of, when it is determined by the discriminating step that the objects are the drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of the drawing order, forming image data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed image data as print data to a printer and, when it is decided by the discriminating step that the objects are the drawing objects in which there is no need to draw in consideration of the drawing order, forming code data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed code data as print data to the printer.
According to the invention, there is provided a printing system comprising:
an information processing apparatus having discriminating means for discriminating whether objects are drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of a drawing order or not and transfer means for, when it is determined by the discriminating means that the objects are the drawing objects to be drawn in consideration of the drawing order, forming image data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed image data as print data to a printer and for, when it is decided by the discriminating means that the objects are the drawing objects in which there is no need to draw in consideration of the drawing order, forming code data corresponding to the drawing objects and transferring formed code data as print data to the printer; and
the printer for forming image data corresponding to the code data which is transferred from the information processing apparatus, synthesizing formed image data and image data to be transferred, and printing synthesized image data.